The digital world shapes us

Technology changes our lives. That’s a truism, you wouldn’t find anyone to disagree. The disagreement comes when we speak of particular technologies—whether pesticides or automated looms or Bluetooth speakers—and the particular ways they change our lives. Then we need to add an extra layer, not only are there specific ways that technologies change our lives,… Continue reading The digital world shapes us

God in the Pit

Larry Crabb tells story after story in his book Shattered Dreams of people whose lives have been upended by grief and pain and the unexpected mundanity of living. Tears have become my deepest form of worship, some reflect. They discover deep desires for God, and then a new hurt on top of the cavalcade of… Continue reading God in the Pit

Welcome requires walls

Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? We think we know that to welcome is the very opposite of having a wall up. We’re wrong. Ivan Illich taught that the welcome of hospitality requires a threshold. By definition, we need to move over a threshold in order to be welcomed. If there is no threshold to move over,… Continue reading Welcome requires walls

Childlike delight

There’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton I’d like to share with you: “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not… Continue reading Childlike delight

We Need Institutions

As I write there’s just been a small Christian Twitter brouhaha (which places me temporally, not at all), over a new institution launched by The Gospel Coalition: The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. At the outset it’s worth saying that I was naturally warmly disposed towards the idea simply because more than one of the… Continue reading We Need Institutions

This Bright Surprise: An Easter Sermon

It was a Thursday evening when they took him, guards appearing at the prayer meeting, all his friends scattering to the four winds. He went meekly, like the lambs being lined up outside the Temple, waiting for the Passover. Earlier that evening Jesus had sat up a hillside surrounded by olive trees, with his three… Continue reading This Bright Surprise: An Easter Sermon

The Martyr Complex

Church isn’t supposed to be hard work. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s not. So often I meet people in churches I’ve been involved in or from elsewhere who are working incredibly hard for Jesus. It’s laudable but it rarely looks to me like the Way of Jesus. Jesus taught a way of… Continue reading The Martyr Complex

The Need for Christian Formation

It’s something of a truism that we’re formed by everything around us. It’s common for people to point out that in the average church you’ve got at best two hours of people’s time a week to use to form them towards Christ—you might get a third of them for another two hours midweek—and everything else… Continue reading The Need for Christian Formation